I attended today's practice. Lots of drills. 4X4 defensive practice against the practice players. Offensive 5X5 on inbounds and lots of work setting screens. Lots of running drills up and down the court with lots of passing. I'd say that 3pt shooting will be an emphasis.
Everyone but Griffin ran all the drills that were non-contact.
Bueckers shot about 20% in warmups and then made everything during practice.
El Alfy does not like to lose a rebound.
Ziebell made every 3 she took in the simulation drills except 1. She gets it off quickly too. A lot of the sets were run to get her free for a 3. She spent a lot of time with the regulars.
This looks like a team with 9 new faces. Daley said that this was their third practice and that it's a lot of work to develop the timing on screens and drives UConn uses and that is what they were doing today.
There was a nice presentation from a company that sell a shot-tracking system that not only records makes and misses but also tracks exactly how the shot went through the net. According to them the optimum launch angle is 47degrees and the optimum shot is 4 inches past the center of the rim.
The best part of the day to me was the video guy, Ben something, who showed sets UConn uses and the variations that result.
I go back tomorrow for another session. I kinda wish I was seeing the 25th practice instead of the third today. But I'm not complaining.
